Posts, mostly about Buddhism

There are many videos on Tara Mantra on Youtube, but this one stands out for its very beautiful music setting. You see a girl sitting and meditating. On top of her head is Master Tsongkhapa. Deep in his heart is the Bodhisattva Tara, and deep inside her breast is the letter TAM, her seed syllable, surrounding by the ten syllables of her mantra – Om Tara Tuttare Ture Svaha. This the standard method of meditating on Tara. The idea is to visualize that one ultimately is identified with the Bodhisattva herself. What this means is that one accepts all the qualities of Tara into oneself, so that there is no distinction whatsoever between oneself and Tara. Or to put it another way, one does actually become Tara in one’s meditation. This does not mean that one is having an illusion or is becoming crazy, like a patient who thinks that he is Napoleon; but it means that the aim of the meditation is to acquaint the mind with Tara herself. To become one with Tara means that one is losing oneself — one is letting go of one’s own ego and one’s own personality, and merges into something much larger. It is pure spirituality. After identifying oneself with Tara, it is necessary that the practitioner ends the session with the ‘dissolution’ or ‘completion’ stage, where one visualizes that Tara dissolves back into her seed syllable, and finally into empty space, and then one remains within the meditation in emptiness — no thought, no fabrication. The two stages of the meditation — the visualization and the completion stage — always complement each other and the meditation will not be complete without both of them.

About this Blog

This is where I post my thoughts, which are usually about Buddhism. I also post occasional pieces about politics and other things. As for Buddhism, it is mainly philosophical and concerns more the Mahayana tradition.